Hi Tweeters,

Dave Hayden and I birded portions of SW Washington on this mostly sopping Tuesday. Our main target bird was the Ilwaco Yellow-Billed Loon. On the way, we made a detour to Willow Grove Park and vicinity to try for the Red-shouldered hawk, but it eluded us. Between Willow Grove and the Julia Butler Hansen NWR we saw 25 TURKEY VULTURES, mostly along Hwy 4 on the Washington side of the Columbia River; so they're back! The refuge itself was pretty slow, although we did see 4 pairs of CINNAMON TEAL along with the more common species of water fowl for this time of year. Entering on the Visitor Center side, the road was closed 2.7 miles in. We turned around and headed for Ilwaco.

We quickly found the YELLOW-BILLED LOON by the Ilwaco marina. It proved to be very cooperative, sometimes swimming to within 20 feet or so of where we were standing. Other birds seen there were COMMON LOON, WESTERN GREBE, AND HORNED GREBE. We also spotted a RED-THROATED LOON in nearby Black Lake.

Our next stop was the North Head lighthouse by Cape Disappointment. Not a lot of birds on the water today, perhaps the most common being small groups of COMMON MURRE. We also saw 1 BROWN PELICAN, which was a FOY for both of us. While scanning the distant loons and WESTERN GREBES though my binoculars, a GRAY WHALE breached right in my line of focus. We watched while at least 2 of them surfaced on and off for the next 5 minutes. Very cool!

We stopped at Tokeland on the way back (kind of), and found only 2 measly MARBLED GODWITS; not a single Willet or Whimbrel to be seen.

While we didn't see a lot of diversity out there today (about 55 species), several of those that we did see were in their breeding plumage. My favorites were the Common Loons and Horned Grebes. And even though it rained on and off, the wind was calm and it wasn't too cold.

Good birding,

Lonnie Somer
Olympia
wheelermombi at comcast.net